A 12-year-old Pinetown girl had a narrow escape when a gang of armed robbers held her up at gunpoint while her parents were busy attending to the pool outside their home on Tuesday afternoon.
Blue Security community and media liaison officer, Andreas Mathios said the suspects targeted the family just after they arrived at their Farningham Ridge home at around 2.10pm.
“When the family arrived home their daughter went inside and the couple went to the back of the property where they were working on clearing debris from the swimming pool. Unbeknown to the couple, a gang of five armed suspects arrived at the premises, and two suspects jumped over the wall and walked into the house. The front door had been left open,” Mathios said.
“The suspects, who were wearing gloves and balaclavas confronted the girl, who was sitting on the couch, and held her up at gunpoint, forcing her to walk with them through the house,” he added.
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Mathios said the couple, oblivious to what was going on inside the house, only realised something was amiss when they noticed the suspects’ blue Hyundai Elantra parked at the gate.
“The couple approached the vehicle to investigate and one of the suspects opened a window and said he was looking for a bed and breakfast,” said Mathios.
“At that point one of the suspects who had been inside the house ran outside and held the couple up at gunpoint, demanding the gate remote. Four of the suspects then forced the couple back inside the house where they forced them to lie on the floor. They loaded a television, jewellery and clothes into their vehicle where the fifth armed suspect was waiting outside,” he said.
“In their haste to grab valuables, before fleeing, one of the suspects accidentally pressed a panic button for the house alarm which went off and they then abandoned their search of the home and ran to their getaway vehicle. They fled in the direction of the M7,” Mathios concluded.
Pinetown SAPS attended the scene of the crime.
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